174 



RUWENZORI AND ITS SXOWS 



I cannot say why, of nionunients in a cemetery. They would certainly be 

 handsome additions to our ornamental flora. Allusion has already been 

 made to the Senecios, or giant grounsel, on the upper i»art of the mountain. 

 The authorities at Kew state that the specimens we sent home show this 

 to be a new species, but in outward asjject it scarcely diiTers from the giant 

 Senecio which I discovered on Kilimanjaro. Like that plant, it grows to 

 a height of over twenty feet, and has liroad, bright green leaves like a 

 cabbage, or even in some aspects like a l)anana. The flower-stalks grow 



144. WATERFALL AT BUAMBA CAMP 



abo^e the leafage to the extent of perhaps two feet, and their masses of 

 flowers are a dull amber-yellow. The plant would be handsome but for 

 the swollen, gouty stem. A'ery often, however, all the lower part of it is 

 exquisitely draped by long fringes of the Usnea lichen, and then it is a 

 really beautiful object in the landscajie. 



A descri[)tion of the np})er parts of Ruwenzori would not be complete 

 without an allusion to the extravagant develo])ment of mosses on the 

 tree-trunks between 11,000 and 12,000 feet. This growth of moss is 

 extraordinarily thick. Perhaps it would give a depth of eighteen inches 

 before the stem or trunk on which it grows was reached by a probing 



